Thanks to all for the useful replies. Much appreciated. A few specific comments...
Originally Posted by
garykung
For me, I take another approach.
If the inventory is still available (and I have miles), I will book a complete new reservation and cancel the old one.
That wouldn't work in my particular instance, since the reservation is SQ F, but good to know for future reference.
Originally Posted by
robbert
Maybe start by asking if they would look up the BKK-CEI segment first. You should be able to tell if that goes smoothly and if you have a good agent.
I had 3 similar award reservations and needed to make a change to one of them. The representative did not listen and simply took the first and made the change. It wasn't until I had hung up that I saw the mistake. Fortunately, the original flight had plenty of availability and the next agent put me back without issue (and refunded the change fee).
Looking back I should have known the first agent would not get it right but it is hard to say why. It's maybe that some of the best agents are very meticulous and accommodating versus a cavalier attitude of "yes, we'll fix it, say no more".
I really like this idea of first asking the agent to first do something simple in order to get a sense of his/her helpfulness and competence.
Originally Posted by
seattleBH
Agree with that. I don't know where 1k calls are getting routed these days, but i would try hard to find a pre merger CO agent based in SLC, or one of the home agents (most of whom I think report to SLC, but live in DEN. SLC has never let me down.
My own experience with SLC re an upgrade did not go well and involved multiple mistakes by the CSR. But that's just one data point. Good to know that my experience might well be an exception to the rule.